I don't know what radios any of you use, and I know that, in today's world of electronics, everyone has a favorite type or, on the other hand, a brand that they'd consign to the dumpster, but I thought you might be interested in a letter I recently sent to Midland.
Not sure how it survived, but it did.
To wit:
“I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for the toughness and durability of your products. I hunt the foothills of the Cascade Range in Eastern Washington and have been doing so for almost 20 years now.
In that time, I’ve learned that I’m hard on my gear due to the fact that the area, at various times, is nothing but rock faces, deep draws, steep slopes, rain, sleet, snow, ice, wind, and my seemingly innate tendency to encounter all of the above in a single day with the odd fall and dropping of gear thrown into the mix.
Early on I started buying gear that could always be relied upon and Midland Radios were the favorite in our camp. Needless to say, I’ve been using them (with absolute satisfaction) for years and have beaten them up to a fare-thee-well in the process. Despite such abuse, they kept working. That said, I was not prepared for what happened to one of my Midland GXT 760 radios this year.
I was driving onto a local ranch and had gotten out of my truck to open a gate. I didn’t notice that somewhere during that chore, my radio had either fallen from my belt or out of my truck. Having opened the gate, I drove through – rolling directly over the radio. It was found in the path of my tires, pushed into the dirt and rocks of the driveway.
After cleaning it off, I opened it up and noticed that the batteries had been crushed, but that the radio – except for a minor closing tab on the battery cover – seemed to be intact, if not a bit scratched up. Taking the next step, I installed new batteries, re-attached the belt holder, and closed the battery cover, adding a bit of tape to hold it in place as the closing tab had broken off.
When I turned it on, it started up as if nothing had ever happened. I cycled it through all of its functions, found that everything was in order, and continued using it for the rest of the trip and plan on taking it to elk camp with me later this year.
I doubt that anyone at Midland ever thought of running a full-sized pickup over a radio to see what would happen but, somewhere in your design department, there’s an engineer who deserves a pat on the back for, basically, designing a tank cleverly disguised as a working radio.
Needless to say, you have a satisfied customer who will always look to your company whenever he needs to purchase new communications gear.
You make one hell of a product.”
